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“We want to dance tonight” 





































Copyright, 1936, by Albert Whitman & Co. Printed in the U. S. A. 


©ClA 97018 


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SONDO 

W O TA (go away) !” 

Sondo yelled at the rice birds that came 
to eat the rice. This was a big day for Son¬ 
do. For the first time in his life he was allowed to tend 
the rice field by himself. 

There was just one rice field for Sondo’s whole town. 
If the birds ate the rice his people would starve dur¬ 
ing the dry season. 

Someone had to guard the field all the time. The 
one man in the town who could do this best was named 
Kondekai, or Bird Man. No rice birds ate the rice when 
Kondekai was there. 


— s — 










Today Kondekai had taken his canoe and paddled 
up the river to the next town to see his father. Chief 
Boima, Sondo’s father, had sent Sondo out to care for 
the rice. 

Sondo sat in a little hut that was raised off the 
ground. It was in the center of the field. There were 
vines stretched out in all directions across the field 
from the hut. Whenever birds came Sondo shook the 
vines and yelled. 

As the morning passed Sondo never let his eyes wan¬ 
der from the rice. He was very proud and very happy, 
for today he was doing a man’s work. It would not be 
long before he took his place with the men of the town. 

The next dry season he was going to join the men’s 
secret society. Then as soon as the bush devil had 
taught him how to be a good member of the Vai tribe 
he would be a man. 

Sondo, like all other people in the Vai tribe, did not 
eat his breakfast until noon. Now the sun was high in 
the African sky and Sondo’s stomach was beginning to 
be empty. 

“I wonder why Kondekai doesn’t come,” thought 
Sondo as he shook the vines and frightened away some 
small gray rice birds. “He said he would be back in 
time for me to eat my breakfast.” He shook the vines 
again and sat back in the shade of the little hut, for the 
sun was very hot. 

After a short time Sondo heard a man coming. He 
peeped around the edge of the hut and saw Kondekai 



He peeped around the side of the hut 
















coming into the rice field. Sondo climbed down the 
ladder to the ground and greeted Kondekai. 

“Kondekai, good morning,” said Sondo. 

“Eee, Sondo, good morning,” answered Kondekai. 

“What news is there in Mbaloma?” said Sondo. 

“Nothing strange. What news here?” answered 
Kondekai. 

“Big news, Kondekai. I have kept every rice bird 
from the rice all morning so that our people will have 
plenty of rice next dry season. Now my stomach says 
that I must eat my breakfast,” said Sondo. 

So telling Kondekai GemO'way or Good-bye, Son¬ 
do set off down the trail toward the town. At the edge 
of the jungle was the “half town,” the place where the 
men who had charge of the rice field stayed. 

As Sondo went by, Sietta, Kondekai’s wife, gave 
him a bunch of bananas. Sondo was glad because he 
was so hungry. He walked down the trail eating ba¬ 
nanas as fast as he could. Soon he had only one banana 
left. 

He was just about to eat this last one when he heard 
a noise. It sounded like a little baby crying, only 
much louder. Sondo stopped to listen. "Yeeeeeeeeee, 
yeeeeeeeeee,” came the sound. 

“I had better find out what that is,” thought Sondo, 
“maybe it is an animal that has been hurt.” 

He stepped off the trail and entered the thick jungle. 
He heard the leaves rustle and then he saw what had 
made the noise. It was something that he had wanted 
— 8 — 



He saw what had made the noise 












to have for a pet all his life, a baby baboon, about 
twice as large as a big cat. 

“Ayah!” said Sondo, “the poor baby baboon is lost 
from his mother and he is crying. I will give him my 
banana.” 

The little baboon wasn’t at all afraid of him, so 
Sondo walked up to him and offered him his banana. 
The baboon took the banana and sat back on his 
haunches and ate it. All the time he looked at Sondo. 
He never seemed to blink his eyes. 

He looked just like a little old man, so Sondo de¬ 
cided to call him “Maada,” or grandfather. Already 
Sondo had decided to take the baboon home with him 
for a pet. 

As soon as Maada had finished the banana Sondo 



— 10 — 














held out his hand and the baboon took hold of Sondo’s 
first finger and held on. Sondo went back to the trail 
and walked toward the town with Maada hanging on 
to his finger. He talked to the baboon and they became 
very good friends. 

When Sondo got near the town some of his friends 
saw him and came running to meet him. There were 
Tonie, Sotii, Seku, Jalla, Konkai and Dodo, all about 
the same age as Sondo. 

They were all terribly excited when they saw 
Maada. “A boina mie?” (“Where did he come 
from?”) they all asked at once. 

“Be quiet,” said Sondo, “and I will tell you where he 
came from. I found him down the trail, and he was 
lost. So I brought him home.” 

— II — 







“Koooooooo,” said all the boys. This is what they 
always said when they were very happy. And now they 
were very happy because they had a new playmate. 

But Sondo was still hungry. He and Maada went 
on into the town and stopped at his father’s house. 
Since his father was chief of the town he had the finest 
house. It was big and square and had mud walls and a 
palm thatch roof. All the rest of the houses were 
smaller and were round. 

Sondo went in and found his mother. She had 
breakfast all ready and soon Sondo was eating boiled 
rice and chicken cooked in palm oil. 

He poured the oil on the rice and ate big handfuls 
at a time. He ate and ate, but he saved enough out of 
his food so that he could give some to the baboon. 

Sondo laughed and laughed at Maada. Maada had 
a hard time getting the handfuls of rice in his mouth, 
because he could not use his thumb as Sondo could. 

Just as Sondo was going out to play with his friends 
his father came in. Sondo did not want him to see 
Maada. He was afraid that his father would not let 
him keep his new pet. He quickly shoved Maada back 
of him and tried to get out of the house before his 
father noticed the baboon. 

But—what luck! He stepped on Maada’s toe and 
Maada yelped so loudly that Sondo jumped out to one 
side of him. 

“What is that?” said Chief Boima. 

“Ayah!” thought Sondo, “bad luck has jumped be- 

- 12 - 



Soon Sondo was eating boiled rice and chicken 















































hind me.” And then to his father he said, “My Father, 
this is a baboon that I found this morning. He was 
lost and hungry. I brought him to the town with me. 
And I want so much to keep him. Can’t I, Father? I 
have named him Maada. See, he looks like an old man. 
I will take care of him, Father.” 

But Chief Boima said, “No, Sondo. Last season we 
had poor crops. Only very little rice and cassava (a 
tropical fruit) were we able to put away for the long dry 
season. 

“There is hardly enough for the people in the town. 
It will be two moons before the new rice is ready to 
harvest. We cannot give the baboon any of our food, 
for then there would not be enough for our people. 

“Sondo, you must send him back to the jungle. As 
you know, the baboon clans travel in big circles. In a 
week they will be near this town again. One week 
from today you must take Maada back where you 
found him. Then the other baboons will find him and 
take care of him. Finish palaver.” 

Sondo was broken-hearted. He knew that it was no 
use to argue further with the chief even if he was his 
father. 

The chief must always look after and take care of 
the people of the town. And when his father had said 
“Finish palaver” Sondo knew that that was an end of 
the matter. 

The chief had given his decision. The only thing 
Sondo could do now would be to go to the Exalted 


— 14— 



“Sondo, you must send him back to the jungle” 











Chief who was the only man in the whole tribe above 
his father. 

But little boys didn’t go to the Exalted Chief and 
ask to be allowed to keep baboons. The Exalted Chief 
was far too busy to be bothered by anything except 
business that concerned the whole tribe. 

Sondo and Maada walked to the palaver house, 
which was just a big roof held up by posts. Here his 
father held court, or palaver, and listened to and de¬ 
cided on the troubles between the people of the town. 

In it were several stools for the people to sit on. In 
one end was a hammock that was woven of twine made 
from the twisted veins of palm leaves. This was the 
hammock that his father lay in when he was listening 
to palaver. 

How grand his father always looked in his fine 
chief’s gown and black and gold cap. He would be in 
the hammock while everyone else had to either sit on 
the little stools, or stand. 

Since no one was using the palaver house at the 
time, Sondo and Maada went inside. Sondo lay down 
in the hammock and Maada sat on the floor and 
chased a flea from his stomach around to his back, 
up his back across his head to his left ear. 

The flea seemed to hide in his ear. After Maada 
had felt around his ear for a while he gave up the 
chase and put both hands on the floor between his feet. 

Sondo looked at Maada and smiled. What a nice 
pet he was. If he could only think of some way to 

—16 — 



Sondo looked at Maoda and smiled 






















keep him. But try as he would he could think of no 
way by which he might be able to change his father’s 
decision. 

Anyway he was going to keep Maada seven days, 
and that was something. He rolled over in the ham¬ 
mock and reached out his arm to pet the little baboon. 

Soon Sotii, Sondo’s best friend, saw Sondo. He 
called the other boys and they all went in the palaver 
house. They were all sorry to hear about Maada, but 
they soon forgot when they began to play “chief.” 

Sondo was the chief and the baboon was charged 
with stealing rice. All the boys were witnesses, half for 
and half against the baboon. Sondo lay down in the 
hammock and tried to look like his father when he 
was holding court. 

“What palaver is there?” said Sondo, just as his 
father did. 

“There is a bad shame palaver,” said Sotii. “Maada 
has stolen rice at a time when there is very little 
food.” 

“Maada, does Sotii speak the truth?” asked Sondo. 

Maada slowly winked his eyes and scratched his 
stomach. Then he looked at them all as much as to 
say, “You know I wouldn’t steal anything.” 

Sondo called witnesses, some for and some against 
Maada. In the end they finally proved the baboon 
guilty. Then Sondo had to sentence him to two months 
of special work fixing the monkey bridges across the 
rivers. 


—18 — 


Soon they got tired of playing “chief” and decided 
to play “hunter.” 

“I want to be the hunter,” said Sondo. 

“No, I want to be the hunter,” said Sotii. “Besides, 
you were chief.” And since Sondo was very fair- 
minded, he agreed. 

They decided they would hunt elephants. Dodo 
and Konkai were chosen to be the elephants, Sotii was 
the head hunter and Sondo and the rest of the boys 
were to help Sotii. 

They ran out of the palaver house toward the jun¬ 
gle, yelling at the top of their voices. Maada swung 
along on his hands after them, looking for all the world 
like a little old man on crutches. He was just as ex¬ 
cited as any of the boys. 

The elephants were given time to hide somewhere 
in the edge of the jungle. Then the hunters started to 
look for them. Maada climbed into the jungle and 
swung along from branch to branch, screaming with 
excitement. 

The hunters tried to get him to keep still since it 
was very dangerous to hunt elephants and must be 
done quietly. Otherwise the elephants would stam¬ 
pede before the hunters got close enough to them. But 
Maada was having a good time and would not stop 
screaming. 

Soon the hunters spied the elephants and started 
to chase them. They chased them out of the jungle 
and across the town. The elephants turned back 


19— 



Momo, the weaver 






















through the town. Just as the hunters were about to 
catch them the whole bunch of boys ran into the loom 
of Momo, the weaver. 

All the boys fell head over heels. Maada, how¬ 
ever, didn’t fall. He was jumping along and happened 
to jump right, so that he went over the threads. 

Momo was angry. He said, “Here I get my loom 
all ready to weave a piece of cloth and you boys run 
into the threads and break most of them. I have a 
good notion to beat all of you. Now I will have to fix 
it all again.” 

The boys were really sorry, for they liked Momo 
very much. He told them the nicest animal stories of 
anyone else in the town. 


— 21 — 








“Never mind. We are sorry. We won’t do it again,” 
Sondo said. 

But Momo was still just a little bit angry, even 
after what Sondo said. Just then Chief Boima came 
by. He asked Momo what the palaver was all about. 

Momo told him what the boys had done. Then 
he felt sorry for the boys, and said, “But I don’t think 
they could help it. I know they won’t do it again.” 

All the boys felt better when Momo said this. 
Then Chief Boima looked at them and frowned and 
they all felt badly again. If they had looked right at 
Chief Boima’s face they would have seen a little smile 
in each corner of his mouth. But they were all look¬ 
ing at the ground expecting that the chief would 
break a switch and use it on their legs. 

Chief Boima, in a very stern voice, said, “You boys 
are guilty in this palaver. Not so?” 

“Yes, chief,” said all the boys. 

“Then,” said Boima, “I will pass sentence on you. 
Each one of you must get a bucket and bring water 
from the river for all the cooking for the town for 
supper.” 

The boys felt better. This was their job every day, 
so it wasn’t such a bad punishment. The chief wasn’t 
very angry at them, or he would have given them 
something worse. 

So all the boys took buckets and started for the 
river, followed by Maada. They soon forgot their 
troubles and began to run and frisk again. They got 


— 22 — 




to the river and filled their buckets with nice, clean 
water. 

Then they helped each other put the buckets on 
their heads and they started for the town. Each head 
had a bucket on it. They didn’t spill a single drop of 
water, although they never touched the buckets with 
their hands. 

They made four trips to the river for water, and 
then they went back again to take their evening 
baths. They had all taken a bath that morning but 
as usual they bathed again after their work was fin¬ 
ished. 

Maada didn’t like the water a bit. Sondo pulled 
him in but he soon scrambled out on to the dry shore 
and climbed a tree so that he wouldn’t have to go in¬ 
to the water again. 

The boys, with a final round of ducking each other, 
— 23— 







left the river and raced for the town. It was supper 
time. Maada couldn’t run as fast as the boys, but the 
boys beat him by only a few seconds. 

Each boy was given his supper in a little half 
gourd. The supper was boiled rice mixed with collard 
greens, and fish cooked in palm oil. The Vai people 
called this food “palaver sauce.” 

The boys all met by Sondo’s house and sat on the 
edge of the floor of the palaver house to eat their 
meal. Maada sat in front of them looking first at one 
and then at the other for a piece of food. 

“I like palaver sauce better than anything else,” 
said Dodo. 

“I don’t,” said Seku, “I like rice and elephant 
meat. When I get big I am going to be a hunter, and 
kill elephants so that I can have elephant meat when¬ 
ever I want it.” 

“Elephant meat is good,” agreed Sondo. “But then 
everything is good. How about cassava beaten up and 
then cooked? Or how about deer meat?” 

“I like deer meat, too,” said Sotii. “But the trou¬ 
ble is that deer are so small that only a few people 
get meat from them. Everyone in the town can get 
meat from an elephant and there will be enough to 
last the town many months.” 

“Did you ever taste monkey meat?” said Konkai. 
He had been eating so fast that this was the first time 
that his mouth had been empty enough to say any¬ 
thing. 


—24— 



He began to tease the crocodile 























































“What!” said Sondo, “you don’t know that people 
of the Vai tribe don’t eat monkey meat? You ought 
to be ashamed. Don’t you know that if we ate mon¬ 
key meat we would forget our language?” 

“A yah! I forgot,” said Konkai. 

Soon the boys heard drums in the distance. “Some 
chief must be coming,” said Sondo. By this time the 
boys had finished their meal, so they ran out to the 
trail to see who was coming. 

In the distance they could see a band of about six 
men. As they drew nearer they could tell that the 
man in front was a chief. He was dressed like a chief. 
The other men were his servants. The two drummers 
came last. 

Finally the group of men arrived at the town. They 
went straight to the palaver house and the chief went 
inside and sat down. His men stood around outside 
the palaver house. 

Very soon Chief Boima came to greet the visitor. 
He shook hands and then snapped fingers with him. 
The boys liked to see two such fine men. Both were 
so tall and so straight and graceful. 

After the chiefs had talked for a few minutes the 
boys found out that the visitor’s name was Bokai. He 
came from Mombu in the Tewa Section. That was a 
long day’s walk from Sondo’s town. Bokai was on his 
way to Cape Mount on business and he wished to stay 
the night in Jondu. 

Boima said, “Never has a Vai man, or any friend 

— 26 — 


of the Vai tribe, been refused food and a house for as 
long as he wanted to stay. You are welcome. Thank 
you for coming.” 

Then Boima happened to see Sondo and he said, 
“Sondo, you and Sotii take buckets and go to the 
river and bring water for Chief Bokai’s bath.” The 
boys scampered off so fast that they did not hear Bo¬ 
kai’s answer to the speech of welcome. 

Of course Maada wanted to go along. At first he 
tried to get in the bucket so that he could ride, but 
Sondo put him out, and he had to run along on his 
hands the best he could. 

Sotii reached the river first. He thought he saw an 
old log floating near the edge of the river, but he 
couldn’t see very well because it was getting dark. 

He was just wading out into the water to fill his 
bucket when WHOOSH! One end of the log moved 
around towards Sotii as quick as lightning. Just the 
very tip end hit him on the chest so hard that he was 
knocked unconscious. 

It was a crocodile! He started towards Sotii, open¬ 
ing his big mouth as he swam. 

Sondo called for help as loudly as he could. He 
tried to go out to Sotii but the crocodile was getting 
too close. What could he do? He must do something or 
Sotii would be eaten! 

Just then Sondo saw Maada swinging through a 
tree out over the river. He swung down until he was 
directly over the crocodile’s head. 

—27— 


Then he began to tease the crocodile by swinging 
down close to his head and then away again so quick¬ 
ly that the crocodile could neither hit him with his 
deadly tail, nor bite him with his sharp teeth. 

Maada teased the crocodile until he became mad 
and began to chase him up the river bank. This 
gave Sondo a chance to dash in and pull Sotii up the 
bank to safety. 

Sondo then lifted him to his shoulders and began 
to carry him to the town. Of course Maada came 
along. 

When they got to the palaver house there was 
much excitement. Sotii was laid in a hammock. Much 
to Sondo’s joy, he soon blinked his eyes and sat up. 

Sondo told the story. Bokai said, “Here is a brave 
boy. Some day he will be a fine man.” And he pulled 
a bracelet from his wrist. It was made from the bot¬ 
tom of an elephant’s foot and it was worked with sil¬ 
ver. Bokai put the bracelet on Sondo’s wrist. 

“Ayah! Was there ever such a lucky boy,” thought 
Sondo. He was the only boy in the whole town who 
had an elephant bracelet. 

“But,” said Sondo, “Maada, my baboon, really 
saved Sotii’s life. He swung out over the river and 
teased the crocodile so that I was able to rescue 
Sotii.” 

After he had heard Sondo, Chief Boima stood up 
and said, “Today I said that the baboon must go. I 
say now that since Maada has saved Sotii’s life he can 

— 28— 



live in Jondu as long as he wants and we will be glac 
to have him.” 

Sondo was indeed happy. He was so happy that 
he forgot to thank his father, but everyone was so ex¬ 
cited that they did not notice it. 

After a while the moon came up. It was a full 
moon and it made the town nearly as light as day. All 
the people gathered around the edge of the town. A 
bush devil was to come out of the jungle to dance. 
To watch a bush devil dance was more fun than any¬ 
thing else in the world. 

The drums began to beat. There were three little 
drums. They were held between the knees of the three 
drummers, who beat on them with their hands, very 
fast. 

Sometimes they would get very loud and then 
they would die down until they made hardly any 
noise, then they would get loud all at once. This was 
fine. Sondo and his friends could not keep their feet 
still. 

Then there was the big drum that sat on the 
ground. It went “BOOM, BOOM!” 

—29— 












There was also the tiny little drum about as big 
around as a man’s arm. The man beat on it with two 
sticks. This drum was made of hollow bamboo and 
had three slits in it so that the drummer could make 
different notes. 

A yah! When the man played on that drum the 
boys just couldn’t stop jumping up and down. And 
when all five drums played together, this was almost 
too much for any little boy. 

The drums stopped. Everyone became quiet. Then 
the little drum started to play. In a minute the other 
drums had picked up the time and all five were going 
as loudly as they could. 

Suddenly there was a shout from the crowd. 
“Kooooooo,” said everyone. Sondo looked towards the 
jungle and there was the bush devil just coming out. 
“Kooooooo,” said Sondo. 

The bush devil came out into the moonlight. He 
had a wooden mask over his head. Grass that reached 
clear to his feet, was fastened to the mask so that 
you could never see who the bush devil was. 

How fast he could move! He moved just as if he 
were sliding. He didn’t bounce up and down a bit. 

He moved this way and that way and the other 
way so fast that the people became very excited and 
said “Kooooooo,” again. Sondo thought that this was 
the finest thing that he had ever seen. 

Then the bush devil began to turn around and 
around so fast that the grass stood off in waves. This 

—30— 



Suddenly there was a shout from the crowd 















was pretty. The drums got louder than ever and ev¬ 
erybody said "Kooooooo,” all over again. 

Sondo was certainly sorry when the bush devil 
went into the jungle and didn’t come out again. But 
soon the people began to dance around and around 
the town in time to the drums. 

Chief Boima and Chief Bokai led them. Sondo and 
Sotii, each holding one of Maada’s hands, danced too. 
Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot. 

Then they began to sing. One man would sing by 
himself, “Anu wola tomo\e wele,” or “We want to 
dance tonight,” and then everybody would sing it af¬ 
ter him. It was fun! More fun than Sondo had had 
since last moon when he had gone to see the man 
whose skin was white all over. 

But since everything must stop some time, the 
dancing and singing finally stopped even though ev¬ 
eryone was having a good time. Soon all the people 
returned to their houses and went to sleep. 

And so Sondo went to his father’s house with 
Maada. Sondo unrolled his grass mat and put it on the 
floor. He unrolled another mat for Maada. Then he 
wrapped himself in his cover cloth and curled up on 
the mat to go to sleep. 

But Maada didn’t want to sleep on a mat as Sondo 
did. He turned and twisted until finally Sondo took 
him outside where he climbed a tree and slept all 
night hanging from the tree by one arm. 


—32 — 




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FREETOWN 


SHCRDRO ISLAND 


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CAPE MOUNT 


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GRAND BA55 



TTIHJIE 

fPOBOC 

OBom 



RIVER BOATS 





































































































